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Team SCA, volvo ocean race

7K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  VickiLee 
#1 ·
First all women team in over a decade. I hope they do well!

 
#7 ·
How are they doing.

Leg 2 - Cape Town to Abu Dhabi

( 1 ) Team Brunel Finished Elapsed time: 023d 16h 25m 20s

( 6 ) Team SCA Finished Elapsed time: 025d 06h 23m 34s

Difference = 2d 10h 01m 46s and beat team Vestra Wind. Pretty Good effort. Yes

Max speed Over ground 1h average registered this 2nd leg 24.4kt Team SCA.

24-hour run Max distance sailed in 24h this 2nd leg 517.4 nms but looks like map free had the best sailing performance or trimmers with Max Distance 24 hr run.

Can't find leg one dash board for further analysis. Waiting for a reply from Race org.

B & G navigators prize state some interesting analysis.

Libby Greenhalgh Team SCA Navigator United Kingdom

"Who she is:

A British-born meteorologist, Libby has worked as the meteorologist for the British sailing team across junior and Olympic levels for the past seven years.

She is also a freelance weather forecaster working for sailing, surf, kite-surf, bike and car rally events. She has sailed most of her life and competed in the Youth Worlds and 470 class before moving onto bigger boats and match racing.

What she said: "The Volvo Ocean Race is one of the things I have aspired to do in my life and the opportunity with Team SCA, to combine the racing that I do,

with the weather knowledge that I have and race around the world, is incredibly exciting."

Navigating or crew sail trimming work defective ?

Comments
 
#8 ·
From on Board Crew Member worth a read if you missed the post.
Volvo race website.

December 14

Corinna Halloran
OBR, Team SCA
Go

Today began with a beautiful sunrise as we travelled through the Hormuz Straits. The day will end with hugs from loved ones when we [finally] arrive in Abu Dhabi after 27 days at sea.

Today is a bittersweet day filled with relief, excitement, curiosity, determination, anticipation, and a twinge of sadness. Today is the last day of Leg 2.

"It's a bit frustrating to do all this preparation to just follow the other boats and not really race them," Elodie said. "I hope we'll be able to race the other boats next time."

We are here to race not to watch. We are here to lead not to follow. Yes, we are paving a road for the future of everyday women who dare to dream big, but we are also competitive athletes and coming in last, regardless, is always tough.

Even though a lot of weather luck played into this leg, we're still blaming ourselves for mistakes we believe cost us the race. That's the nature of being an athlete and the nature of living in a 65ft bubble.

"It's been a tough leg, especially weather wise so it's a good thing it's coming to an end," Dee said. "Let's hope we deliver better on Leg 3. We start well, we just need to maintain that."

We are determined to grow from our mistakes and take the time in the next two and a half weeks to really fix them. Immediately following our finish we will eat (something fresh), unpack the boat, shower and rest, and then debrief with our coaching staff.

This debrief might possibly be the most important debrief to date, as we now fully understand the complexities of the race and the other teams. We will analyse, in detail, our strengths and weakness in order to capitalize on our strengths and remedy our weaknesses for future legs.

We are frustrated because we know we can do better. However, this is a leap in the correct direction! If we were convinced we were at the top of our game, we'd almost be fooling ourselves.

Just reflecting back on six months ago when we sailed the 'Round Canary Island Race', we are virtually a different team than we were then. We've become more confident with handling ourselves as well as ourselves against the others.

So today is a bittersweet day for the team as we finally end Leg 2, an extremely tough leg for the team but one that will nonetheless make us a stronger team and stronger sailors.

However our curiosity is sparked and we're all incredibly eager to begin Leg 3 and really show the fleet what we've got!

Who she is:

Halloran has a degree in photojournalism and writing, and a professional certificate in visual storytelling. She is a sailor too - the young American worked on super yachts and travelled to many places on that job.

What she said: "Sailing is in my blood; my grandfather and mother were big sailors in Annapolis, Maryland, and sailing is how my mother arrived in Newport. I love the ocean and sailing but I did not grow up racing dinghies in the Bay. Instead, I grew up with a camera in my hand."
 
#11 ·
I'm watching this race, too, and can't figure out why they lose in the long races all of the time. They are obviously skilled because they do well in the in port races, but just can't keep up out at sea. Have any of them done this before? I think that may be a big factor. All the other teams have at least someone who has done this race, right?

I also think they may be a bit cautious - and as I said to my husband, they haven't landed on a reef or broken their mast, so I think they are doing fine!

I wish I were young and could do this race someday! It's amazing!
 
#13 ·
Experience plays a huge role in this instance. Only three of the women have done the VOR before, and only once each.

I read something in following the race that the men don't like to give up coveted spots for the women. Many of the men have competed in multiple VORs. For example, on Team Abu Dhabi, while for three it is their first time, one has done 2, three have done 3, one has done 4, and one has done 5 VORs. In-port races will be something everyone has a lot of experience in, which offers a more even playing field for the women. But when most haven't ever done this, the lack of experience makes a difference (and yes, there can be other issues like brute force of course - I got left out of Transpac one year for the same reason grrr). SCA has two extra crew than the standard teams which might help preserve strength (or make up for the lack) and extend endurance. Regardless, they are amazing - and they are blazing the trail for other women to participate more fully in the race.
 
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#15 ·
Some facts
-SCA is lacking experience in the VOR. They have individuals that have been around the world, but not in this type of fully crewed, full on all the time boats.
-their coach died shortly before the start, which I'm sure was a big blow.

Also they aren't doing all that bad. If you scale down ocean racing to w/l, they're only losing by 2 boat lengths. And they've cut down the deficit a lot over the course of the race.

I think its great for sailing, and will encourage other sponsors to get more involved, but as a team they're just not quite there yet. I don't believe it has anything to do with stacking. Line speed, grinding, in the inport races is a real concern, the women have admitted that much. However, they don't seem to do poorly b/c of it on the short course.
 
#16 ·
The women racing on SCA have amazing experience - according to their page, over 250 applied, and only 15 were taken. They can only get better.

zz4gta - I got your message, and replied, but then I got a message saying I need a post count of 15 before I can send private messages! So not sure if you got my reply. The short answer is no and yes.
 
#18 ·
Trevor - We don't know a Mike G at DSC, but we'll be taking people out for the Open House this Sat, so maybe we can ask. Thanks! -Lee

And to get back on the Team SCA track:

Leg 6:The Highs and Lows
After 17days, 20hours, 59minutes and 8seconds Team SCA crossed the line to finish Leg 6 and arrive into Newport to a warm welcome. “We finally arrived at a sociable hour, which has not been our strong point in the past!,” commented Skipper Sam Davies as they arrived on the dock.
It was a leg of highs and lows; it was a strong start for team, they were competitive, racing hard with the top half of the fleet, as they stayed in the top three for much of the first week of this Leg. “For me that first week was important, we hadn’t really done that before, we were going really fast, we had good tactics and good speed, it felt like we were the pace boat at times. I guess it’s hard for people to see that massive difference in our performance since we started the race, but compared to our performance on the first legs, we’re at least 20% better,” Annie Lush.
 
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